The
New Zealand Jewish Council is releasing a survey of antisemitic attitudes in that country early Wednesday morning NZT.
As with similar surveys done over the past decade, a series of questions are asked to tease out whether the respondent has antisemitic and anti-Zionist opinions.
The survey found a high correspondence between those who have the most anti-Zionist views and those who have the most classical antisemitic views:
Twenty one percent of New Zealanders held two or more classical antisemitic views
(out of eight questions), and 25% held two or more Zionophobic views (out of seven).
This survey found there is a relationship between those holding Zionophobic views
and those who hold classical antisemitic views. It shows the more extreme anti-Israel
sentiment someone has, the more classical antisemitic tropes they will believe in, and
vice versa. For example, there is only a 25% chance that someone who holds four
classical antisemitic views will hold no anti-Israel antisemitic views, and only a 29%
chance that someone who holds four anti-Israel antisemitic views will hold no classical
antisemitic views. This is consistent with a United Kingdom study which also showed
a clear empirical link between the two forms of antisemitism.
I had seen the high level results of the
UK survey but hadn't seen that analysis of the link between classic antisemitic attitudes and anti-Israel attitudes.
The nexus where classic antisemitism and anti-Zionism meet is perhaps in the questions comparing Israel to Nazi Germany. In the New Zealand survey, 12% agreed that "Israeli government policies are similar to those of the Nazi regime," in the latest UK survey, 24% agreed that “Israel treats the Palestinians like the Nazis treated the Jews” - which is down from the 31% who agreed in 2019!
One other question asked in New Zealand but not asked in the UK is also another indication of where left-wing antisemitism mirrors classic antisemitism: 14% agreed that "Jews have White privilege."
(Out of partial respect for the embargo, I'm not reproducing the major results of the survey here.)